Thoughts for a light eater

I love eating out, enjoying new culinary creations, but I have a limited appetite, and prefer lite/lo cal, so I often opt for my own stove. I know there are some small bite/tapas places like Mojitos, but any other suggestions?

[Robin Garr]

I love eating out, enjoying new culinary creations, but I have a limited appetite, and prefer lite/lo cal, so I often opt for my own stove. I know there are some small bite/tapas places like Mojitos, but any other suggestions?

Bistro 1860 sells dishes in small or full portions, I believe. I'm pretty sure Caffe Classico still offers dinner dishes in full or half size. 8UP's menu is divided into Sml, Med, Lg and XtraLg. And doesn't Cafe Lou Lou sell full or half-portion sizes?

My memory could be faulty, but I think MilkWood has a lot of small plates.

And just about all the hot NuLu spots have apps that work as well as small plates.

Thanks, Robin! Great suggestions, much appreciated. (I do often order an app as my meal!)

Wiltshire on Market has a ton of appetizer size small plates every week. They also always do a handful of neat salads.

Table 310 in Lexington is all small plates, and the bar will make you anything under the sun. Well worth a trip.

Kim,

Asiatique started a small plates menu. Here's a link to that part of their website.

http://www.asiatiquerestaurant.com/dinner.php

Great topic, Kim. I am also a light eater these days and have gotten tired of taking home a bunch of leftovers. This will be good information to have

Thank you to Adriel for the suggestions! Might hit Lex when Keeneland opens! Good to know about Wiltshire Pantry. We'll have to check them out, as I love their fresh take on things.

Jay - I didn't know Asiatique had small plates, so appreciate the info, thank you!

Alanna - I'm the same way, although my husband likes the leftovers (and usually eats mine!) I'd rather not have something that's such a huge portion.

Should this be another topic? (Robin?) Do restaurants or servers get upset if someone orders an app as an entree?

[Robin Garr]

Should this be another topic? (Robin?) Do restaurants or servers get upset if someone orders an app as an entree?

Kim, it might be a great new topic, and the separate subject might attract more responses. No problem with posting it here, though: In my experience, restaurants and servers don't mind at all! Think of it as "small plates," which is trendy.

I would say, although I don't think any good restaurant would consider it mandatory, that if you order a "light" meal in a fancy place and your bill is on the low side for that place, it would be very gracious to add a couple of bucks to the usual percentage that you would tip, since the server is working just about as hard as he would for a heavier meal. But that's above and beyond.

My husband and I don't eat out frequently, but oftentimes when we do, I will just order an appetizer because so many places serve such huge portions. Sometimes we'll share a meal. Other times I'll just order a regular meal and take home leftovers (depending on what it is and whether or not the weather is such that I can leave it in my car until we get home).

I've worked in the restaurant industry for a very long time so I know that sharing isn't something that goes over well with servers. But sometimes it just doesn't make sense to order 2 dinners. We always tip WAY more than we should though so I feel okay about it.

The dishes at Roots on Bardstown are both excellent and appropriately sized. I'd highly recommend checking it out.

Robin and Sheila - we always tip well (unless there's unusually poor service), and do tip extra when ordering an app as an entree. As a server back in the day, the perception was "cheapskate." Reality is, that's all I want! Unless you're a regular, they don't know off the bat that you will tip well. I'm not uncomfortable doing this at more casual restaurants, but as the scale of the restaurant goes up, my comfort level goes down.

Adam - I forgot about Roots. We have never been, but I'll revisit their menu/website, thanks!

Kim, Lilly's has a special small plate menu every Wednesday night. I highly recommend it. Any one of the three small plates we had last night - cioppino, smoked salmon mousse on a zucchini cake, and fried lamb ravioli - would probably have suited your appetite. Also on Wednesdays they offer around 10 bottles of wine for half price. Great bottles, too - last night they had K Vintners Syrah and Orin Swift's Mannequin on the half price menu.

Antonia - really? I had no idea Lilly's was offering that option! I wonder how often they offer Cioppino. Ironically, we spent a week in the Bay/Napa area 3 years ago, and I was in search of a lot of things (wine/food related), but cioppino was among the top of that list. It boggled my mind that so few locals knew what I was asking about! Chia-whaa?? It seemed to me like asking a Louisvillian about a Hot Brown. Anyway, we found one at the Wharf, but opted out of that partly due to time constraints. Slap in the face? I grab a local magazine in the airport on the way out of town, and as the plane is taking off, I read this great review of a fairly new (at the time) restaurant that raved about it's cioppino. Kicker?? It was 2 blocks from the hotel where we stayed. Charlie Brown moment. (And then I forgot the mag on the plane, so I don't even know the name of the restaurant )